DE­SIGN

A LOOK AT HOW ITALY’S PARA­DOXES AND HIS­TORIC PLACES IN­SPIRE AR­CHI­TEC­TURE, OB­JECTS AND THE IN­DUS­TRY.

Visit a mu­seum in Florence that was once an or­phan­age, and an ex­hi­bi­tion in Mi­lan fo­cus­ing on de­sign for chil­dren

PLACE: Museo degli In­no­centi

Any fan of ar­chi­tec­ture head­ing to Florence should visit Pi­azza della San­tis­sima An­nun­zi­ata, where a gold door marks ar­rival at the Museo Degli In­no­centi (left), the re­badged for­mer or­phan­age de­signed by Filippo Brunelleschi in 1419. As the old­est sec­u­lar in­sti­tu­tion in the world ded­i­cated to the pro­tec­tion of chil­dren, and a fine ex­am­ple of Ital­ian Re­nais­sance ar­chi­tec­ture, it tested the skills of Floren­tine ar­chi­tects at Ipos­tu­dio, who were chal­lenged to make the mu­seum more amenable to 21st-cen­tury vis­i­tors. is­ti­tu­todeglin­no­centi.it; ipos­tu­dio.it

EX­HI­BI­TION: De­sign for Chil­dren

A sur­vey show of Ital­ian de­sign de­voted to the world of chil­dren is cur­rently at the TRI­EN­NALE DE­SIGN MU­SEUM in Mi­lan. Fea­tur­ing pow­er­ful fig­u­ra­tive com­po­nents and a play­ful pop spirit, it will guide vis­i­tors through the themes of fur­ni­ture, ar­chi­tec­ture, signs and tools, fo­cus­ing on such pioneering fig­ures as Bruno Mu­nari. Un­til 18 Fe­bru­ary, 2018; tri­en­nale.org

FASH­ION: Aquaz­zura

It may be in Man­hat­tan, but the first New York out­post of Ital­ian footwear la­bel Aquaz­zura (above) feeds off the re­li­gious de­tail of Florence, the brand’s orig­i­nat­ing city. The scheme of rosy pink, swoop­ing arches and striped col­umns, con­ceived by New York de­signer Ryan Kor­ban, el­e­vates the shoes de­signed by Edgardo Osorio to ob­jects of wor­ship. aquaz­zura.com

PEO­PLE: An­drea Branzi

In the 40th birth­day year of the Pom­pi­dou Cen­tre — the French ar­chi­tec­tural mar­vel made ex­ter­nally ex­pres­sive of its in­fra­struc­ture by Ital­ian ar­chi­tect Renzo Piano and Bri­tish ar­chi­tect Richard Rogers — the in­sti­tu­tion cel­e­brates Ital­ian de­signer, thinker and artist An­drea Branzi. See the breadth of ideas and me­dia ex­plored by one of the founders of the rad­i­cal Floren­tine de­sign stu­dio, Archizoom As­so­ciati, in a new per­ma­nent ex­hi­bi­tion of his work. cen­tre­pom­pi­dou.fr

«Henry Timi»

There may be a Mem­phis-in­flected Post­mod­ern mood rein­vig­o­rat­ing de­sign in Mi­lan, but Min­i­mal­ism is en­joy­ing a like resur­gence, par­tic­u­larly in the Br­era dis­trict, where ar­chi­tect turned de­signer Timi in­vests his work with an ‘emo­tional’ rigour. We love his Corpo Gior­gio­rava bathtub (be­low) — a mar­ble sculp­ture seem­ingly chis­elled from moun­tain­ous ter­rain. hen­ry­timi.com